Christmas is Coming!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Web based apps & 43 Things

Have signed in to Zoho and promptly lost the page I was working on! I loved the emoticons, but there weren't enough for me! I like to try and express emotions as I write and they were cute!

I don't think Zoho or Google apps will take over my love for Office applications at this stage as my Internet is so slow that whenever I tried to make a correction or change something, I was able to make another cup of coffee while I waited for it to load! I am now floating in a caffeine induced coma and really should be in bed!

I started out looking at the winners of the visual arts section of Web 2.0, but they were a little beyond me, so I went to 43 Things. I think this is a site for me - I need to set some goals and be able to mark them off - the first one is to stop procrastinating, the next to clean out my wardrobe and be really ruthless and the third would be to start spring cleaning the house!

Then again a fantastic saying that I found in a magazine yesterday is

Sewing Forever
Housework Whenever


Perhaps I should follow that motto and get on with my stitching. No - time for bed and a think about what goals I could enter into 43 things - there's my stamp collection, my photos, my knitting, my garden...............(what garden!?) my ...............

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Another week and a look at Wikis

I was supposed to be looking at Wikis, but as I usually do before I get stuck into the weeks work, I have a browse around other blogs and things! If you have ever wondered what exactly is going on in your brain, then you could use this extremely useful tool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

brainscannr

Not sure that the brain activity portrayed me in a positive light, but it was fun to enter other's names!

Finally explored Wikis and I can see fantastic potential there for libraries. This is perhaps the one thing we have learned about that really has a place in our libraries NOW.
A Wiki for a specific area (ie ILL, children's services, BOW, etc)- all librarians have ideas on what could be done - instead of waiting for a meeting, instead of talking one-one, a wiki would unite all the librarians from the different 7 distant branches and allow pooling of ideas before the actual meeting, less phone calls, less shared emails and less mixing up of ideas, - perhaps less meeting hours wasted in sharing ideas - it has already been done and all that is needed is the decisions to be made! Dream on.............

As we approach the building of our new Library within the Community Hub, think how fantastic it would be to have an Echuca Wiki! It could be started by the library, added to as we find different attractions, services etc, etc and then I am sure that the community (great marketing would be needed) could basically take over and add as much or as little as they require.

On holiday and need a doctor? I'm sure visitors would love to leave their positive and negative comments.

Need a church service time - have a look at the Echuca Wiki! All the churches would have access and it would be up to them to update their own changes and services - too much for one person to co ordinate, but able to be collaborated on via a Wiki. I guess control would be an issue, but if identity checks were used as I saw on some sites, hten this could be alleviated.

In words that I read somewhere today!! -.........at their best, they can become true community resources that can position the library as an online hub of their local community.

Travelled to the Peanut Butter Quickie (PBWiki for those still not there - although I fail to see why you aren't as I am so far behind) and I'm pretty sure my Blog is now officially there as #3 for our library!

Friday, November 2, 2007

I know - I was going to bed, but...............

It's quite addictive isn't it! I found a handle generator and wondered what my new handle could be - when "Peeping Quickly" was offered, all I could think about was the many hours I have consumed "peeping quickly" at everyone else's blogs! It seemed so apt!

Have a look and see if you can get yourself one
http://nine.frenchboys.net/handle.php

I also saw Valeie giving her blog a fancy heading, so had to join the fun - I love the Glitteratzi machine and my pink carnation glittering heading!

Technorati and Thoughts on Library 2.0

Have had a bit of a search on Technorati, but time has meant that it has been shorter than I would have liked! It looks to be a good tool for searching Blogs, as I had already tried this on "Blogger" but had difficulty finding anything other than pornographic blogs - there seem to be plenty of those! At least Technorati allows you to search in a couple of different ways to find Blogs with a similar interest base.

Library 2.0 is a little scary when you think that there is to be a new library built within the next couple of years and probably based on the libraries of yore. Who knows what the libraries of tomorrow and 2.0 will look like and how we can change what we already have to encompass what I see as a huge revolution.

Rick Anderson talks of the "just in case" collection - and we have one of those!

He also talks of our reliance on user education. This is a massive undertaking and there has to be some way of educating in the areas we are learning about so that everyone is on the same wave length and can use the ever increasing, mind blowing tools that are popping up daily. Just to get Librarians educated is a huge undertaking, let alone trying to teach my mother!

He also talks about the "come to us" model of the library and we have just seen a great example of this not being our only model on the local level with the introduction of the YourTutor website for our students. Sure they have to be a member of the library, but they can access this marvellous tool from their own homes.

Must be time for bed or some embroidery! Oh God is that the time! I knew I had spent a lot of time investigating others blogs, but this is ridiculous! Good night!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Del.icio.us

Have had a look at Del.icio.us and can see some major benefits of having this installed - particularly for those who search a lot at home and would like an easy way to access favourite sites for updates at work and vice versa.

I had a little trouble installing the buttons, but when I went back to have another go, I decided to install them using the Yahoo tool bar and everything went like clockwork. It will take a little while to get some of my favourite sites on there and I guess we will have to install the buttons on the library computers, but at least whenever Damien decides to do something to the work stations at work, we won't lose all our Bookmarks and they will all be accessible on whichever computer we are needing to use at any one time. I am thinking that we will all have to use the buttons that have been set up on the library workstations - another user name and password!!!

Perhaps they could be used on the library website in some way - I am really not up with all the technicalities there!